Jakarta (LPG, 1998 Riots, Human Rights)

Jakarta, Glodok, 2008

Here is just one reason why Indonesia should nationalize its oil and gas industry.  Indonesia will pay 32 million dollars to the U.S. ConocoPhilips plant in Teluk Semangka, Lampung for liquified natural gas. Indonesia is buying what it already owns.

Indonesia to buy LPG from U.S. company

from Chinaview …> go to article

JAKARTA, May 17 (Xinhua) — Indonesia’s oil and gas company Pertamina Inc. plans to buy 40,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas(LPG) from U.S.-based ConocoPhilips with 32 million U.S. dollars to secure its May supply, which has been disrupted by a glitch at its Balongan refinery in West Java province, local media reported here on Saturday.

Director for marketing and trading of the company Ahmad Faisal said the purchase was needed as current supply would only last for up to three days after a unit in the refinery last week went off-line, according to local newspaper the Jakarta Post.

“The LPG will come from a ConocoPhilips plant in Teluk Semangka, Lampung, Indonesia” Faisal said.

The Balongan refinery is the country’s largest LPG producer, with an output of 1,200 tons of LPG per day, which is delivered to Jakarta and other cities on Java.

Pertamina processing director Rukmini Hadihartini said the company needed 18 days to repair the equipment and get operations back to normal.

Pertamina will also increase May gasoline imports by 1 million barrels as the commodity’s consumption has risen 5 percent following a period of panic buying caused by the government’s announcement to raise fuel prices.

The government has capped the volume of subsidized fuels at 35.5 million kiloliters with a state budget allocation of 126.8 trillion rupiah (some 13.7 billion U.S. dollars), the Jakarta Postsaid.

Editor: Du Guodong

Folowing are two recent articles from Reuters published May 15 and May 16, 2008.  Your assignment is to contemplate how and in what ways these two articles are connected.

Victims of 1998 Indonesia riots still silent-report
Thu May 15, 2008 5:41am EDT

JAKARTA, May 15 (Reuters) - Ten years after riots that preceded the fall of former Indonesian President Suharto in 1998, victims of sexual violence are still too traumatised to speak out, a rights group said on Thursday.

About 1,000 people were killed in the capital Jakarta, mostly those trapped in burning buildings, as mobs rampaged through the streets and attacked shops and malls at the height of the Asian financial crisis in May 1998.

The riots followed daily student protests as discontent against Suharto’s rule grew after he was re-elected for a fifth consecutive term by a rubber-stamp parliament.

An independent team set up to investigate the riots found that 85 mostly ethnic Chinese women were sexually assaulted, but authorities dropped the inquiry, citing a lack of evidence.

Ten years later the victims remain silent because they fear for their safety and have no faith in the country’s justice system, according to a new report issued by the National Commission on Violence Against Women.

The general public’s refusal to acknowledge that rapes took place means that there is little hope the victims will see justice, the report said. …> go to article

U.N. body says torture widespread in Indonesia
Fri May 16, 2008 12:00pm EDT

By Laura MacInnis

GENEVA, May 16 (Reuters) - Indonesia’s police, armed forces and intelligence services routinely torture and degrade criminal suspects to extract confessions, with almost total impunity for those responsible, a United Nations rights body said on Friday.

The U.N. Committee Against Torture said it was “deeply concerned about numerous ongoing credible and consistent allegations” of abuse in the Indonesian justice system.

Military officials and “morality police” were also found to use disproportionate force and violence, particularly against women, in the Aceh province and other areas of conflict, the 10-member independent panel said in a report released in Geneva.

It cited “grave concerns over the climate of impunity for perpetrators of acts of torture, including military, police and other state officials, particularly those holding senior position.”

“No state official alleged to have perpetrated torture has been found guilty,” the committee said in its 14-page findings, which are not legally binding but carry diplomatic weight.

The report expounded upon the concerns raised in November by U.N. torture expert Manfred Nowak, who said torture of detainees in Indonesian police custody was rife despite efforts to combat rights abuses after the ouster of autocratic president Suharto. …> go to article               

I will add, out of fairness, that Indonesia is not the only country with a torture problem. We have one here in the United States. We have our very own war criminals to deal with vis-a-vis our current government and the Iraq War. Let me just name a few: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice. There are not enough jail cells at the Hague to fit them all in.

POST SCRIPT

This from Asia Sentinel, published on May 18, 2008, adds a sad but appropriate post script here.

Indonesia Loses a Human Rights Voice

OUR CORRESPONDENT
18 May 2008
Internecine warfare in the courts results in a civil rights leader’s disbarment

Todung Mulya Lubis, Indonesia’s most prominent human-rights voice, Friday was disbarred from practicing law by the Jakarta Regional Honor Board after another prominent lawyer, Hotman Paris Hutapea, filed a complaint against him for an ethics violation.

In a telephone interview with Asia Sentinel, Mulya Lubis called the decision “totally baseless and unlawful” and said he has little hope of winning an appeal.

“For me this is a conspiracy of corrupt lawyers who feel troubled and disturbed by my stand to play by the rules and consistently fight against corruption,” he said. “The accuser, Hotman Paris Hutapea, is known as the most corrupt lawyer in Indonesia, while I am regarded as symbol of an incorruptible lawyer. The judgment is outrageous and has killed my life, violated my right to practice law, and defied common sense and justice. I will appeal, but I am losing hope in the integrity of the Bar Association. The legal profession is rotten.” …> go to article